2013 Vauxhall Astra GTC | Review, Price, Interior, Exterior, Engine

2013 Vauxhall Astra GTC | Review, Price, Interior, Exterior, Engine. – Welcome to Neocarsuv.Com, we will provide the latest information about the Vauxhall Astra GTC. 2013 Vauxhall Astra GTC is one brand new car from Vauxhall / Opel that was released in 2013. We will also review about the price, interior, exterior and engine of the 2013 Vauxhall Astra GTC.

As mentioned, the Astra Cabrio will go on sale in Europe later this year and with any luck, assuming Opel escapes its current troubles, the car may reach U.S. showrooms before the end of 2013. Look out for an official world debut at the 2012 Paris Auto Show in September.

There’s a tough task ahead for Australia’s newest car market contender, Opel. It’s a rebirth of sorts, especially for the Astra, which brings a familiar and respected nameplate back into the market, but under a new badge. But anything trying to elbow its way into the overcrowded bloodied scrum that is the Australian passenger car market is going to have to be better than merely good. Especially if it’s going to dish out any pain at all to the established players. Nonetheless, Opel is here, and is lining up a three model 14 variant range for a September 1 launch. Helping its cause is some pretty impressive machinery. Tastiest of all, on the basis of our first forays at the wheel, is the Astra GTC Sport.

That it does, and if you keep chugging about without stretching the engine, it’s a fine performer. Just not the diesel sports hatch we wanted. All Astra BiTurbo variants sport a 6mm drop in ride height, but the handling remains the same: confident, grippy and accurate, albeit a little detached. Still, it’s comfortably £1500 cheaper and more powerful than an equivalent Golf GTD, if such nuances matter. Prices for the GTC BiTurbo start from £23,925. It’s a decent car, the BiTurbo, but whisper it the Golf is a better drive.

Enhancing the appeal of all Astra models still further is the introduction of a raft of options previously unseen in the range. Customers can now order the Driver Assistance Pack, which for £750 includes features like Forward Collision Alert, Lane Departure Warning, Traffic Sign Recognition and Following Distance Indicator.

2013 Vauxhall Astra GTC Interior :
For style and accommodation, the interior is pretty sharp. Our car, in Irish spec for the launch (the Aussie spec machinery hasn’t arrived yet), had the very comfortable, generously shaped $2500 AGR leather sports seats. Tactile surfaces are all good, with an upmarket feel, and the combination of brushed metal and polished dark highlights looks very smart. Switchgear also feels ‘right’, and ergonomically things seem well placed and easily operated. The leather wrapped multi function steering wheel however, while nicely square on (and rake and reach adjustable), could perhaps be a little thicker. The big chromatic sports dials are clear and easily read and there’s a cold metal solid feel to the door handles.

Climb aboard and the cabin is pure Megane. Apart from the long doors and smallerglass area, you could easily be sitting in the five door. That means you get the same attractively designed dash, decent quality materials and low set driving position. It’s packed with standard kit as well. Sat nav, Bluetooth and dual zone climate control all feature, add all this to the Astra and you’ll have to fork out an extra L1,380. There are some frustrations, though. The radio is fiddly 10 use, plus the ugly sat nav housing on top of the dashboard looks like an afterthought. And while the plastics have a classy look, the interior doesn’t feel as solidly put together as either rival’s. And the dials look cheap.

Also available to order from today is the Astra GTC 2.0 CDTiBiTurbo, which will become the most powerful non VXR model in the range, producing 195PS and 400Nm of torque. And while the extra power and torque give it a healthy lift in performance with 0-60mph arriving in just 7.8 seconds and a top speed of 139mph, the BiTurbo still achieves a combined 53.3mpg and C02 emissions of 139g/km. All BiTurbos receive Vauxhall’s Start/Stop system as standard.

Uniquely in this class, the GTC uses a sequential turbocharging system, with the smaller turbo accelerating quickly at lower speeds to eliminate ‘lag’, providing 350Nm of torque from just 1500rpm. In the mid range, both turbochargers work together providing maximum torque of 400Nm between 1750-2500rpm.

Sadly, Vauxhall’s designers haven’t put in as much time or effort on the interior, as the dashboard and major controls have been lifted straight out of the five-door. There’s no real sporty focus to match the exterior. Even so, you get a solidly constructed and smartly styled layout that has the same upmarket feel as the VW. Neat touches on the SRi include the ambient lighting package, which bathes the interior in a moody red glow at night. There’s also a chunky, leather wrapped, three-spoke steering wheel and extremely supportive front sports seats.

2013 Vauxhall Astra GTC Engine :
Under the bonnet of the GTC 1.6T Sport is a super sweet 1.6 litre DOHC petrol turbo and six speed manual transmission. With 137kW and 230Nm, it doesn’t have the sledgehammer power of the 184kW Megane Sport or even the rush of the 155kW Golf GTI, but it’s delightfully nimble, can be belted through the gears and feels every ounce the slick ‘sports hatch’. Dispatching the 0-100km/h dash in a claimed 8.3 seconds, it’s ‘warm’ rather than ‘hot’, but pulls strongly with an eager turn of speed and can be punched out of a corner.

However, the Astra Cabrio will feature a sophisticated front suspension borrowed from the 325 horsepower Insignia OPC, featuring Opel’s HiPerStrut (High Performance Strut) as well as a Watt’s link rear axle just like its Astra GTC sibling. It will also get a range of four cylinder gasoline and diesel engines, but sadly a high performance OPC model is unlikely to be produced. This means that the most powerful model is likely to feature a 180 horsepower turbocharged 1.6 liter engine.

European automakers offer some tempting hot hatches, but the stark reality of gas prices that are even higher across the pond than they are here in the United States dictates that most buyers are opting for diesels. Vauxhall is here to say, however, that it doesn’t have to be one or the other.

Slotting in below its VXR performance range is a new turbodiesel Astra, packing a 2.0 liter twin turbo diesel four with 195 horsepower and a whopping 295 lb-ft of torque. The sequential twin turbo oil burner is the same as Vauxhall offers in the larger Insignia, but in the smaller hatchback, all that twist helps the Astra GTC BiTurbo run from 0 to 62 mph in 7.8 seconds en route to a 139 mph top speed, all the while returning 53.3 miles per gallon on the European combined cycle thanks in part to the standard stop/start system.

Hang on a sec. On paper, this engine boasts some impressive stats. It packs 195bhp, but also 295lb ft of torque from as little as 1,250rpm that’s as many torques as the VXR. It’ll hit a claimed 0-62mph in 7.8 seconds, but also return 57.7mpg and emit just 129g/km of CO2. Vauxhall wants you to think of it as a performance orientated diesel, to which the world is slowly becoming accustomed . It’s also the most powerful diesel Astra ever built a VXR diesel, if you will.
Source: autocarrelease.com.